Liquor Jugs Can Be As Colorful As Their Contents Are Potent

February 20, 1987|By Anita Gold.

Collectors take great pride in folk pottery. Pieces that are especially appealing, appreciated and sought after are the grotesque-looking liquor jugs. They often have ugly faces as well as being adorned with snakes, insects, animals and other creatures.

These jugs are a far cry from the simple and unembellished little brown jug that held grandpappy`s moonshine. Some of the most outrageous pieces of pottery were produced in Anna, Ill., by a pair of enterprising brothers, Cornwall and Wallace Kirkpatrick, who built and operated a stoneware pottery business in that town between 1859 and 1896.

Although Anna Pottery manufactured utilitarian stoneware vessels, drainage pipes, garden crockery, fire brick, architectural elements and even reed-stem tobacco pipes, the Kirkpatrick brothers also produced eccentric and amusing pottery pieces. These included bizarre stoneware bottles embellished with snakes and other creatures; pig-shaped whiskey flasks; large urns and jugs inscribed with names, dates and facsimiles of business cards; and figural presentation pitchers. The pieces reflect the Kirkpatrick brothers` sense of humor.

Among the amusing pieces produced at Anna Pottery was a figural match safe and striker dating from 1892. It featured an open tree trunk (which held the matches) and a mushroom (which served as the striker) with a pair of kissing frogs underneath and with the words ``Let Me Kiss You for Your Mother`` inscribed around the base. Other pieces were fancy, large-size castles made as bird houses for martins. They had as many as 25 rooms to accommodate the birds.

Many of the Kirkpatrick brothers` astounding pieces are on display in all their glory through March 6 at an exhibit, ``The Anna Pottery 1859-1896: the Ceramics of Cornwall and Wallace Kirkpatrick,`` at the State of Illinois Art Gallery in the State of Illinois Center, 100 W. Randolph St. The State of Illinois Art Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free.

Also on exhibit at the State of Illinois Art Gallery are Doris Z. Knoblock`s ``Fantasy Creatures on Ceramic Vessels,`` which represent contemporary pieces of such pottery. Knoblock lives and works in Heyworth, Ill., and creates spectacular pieces designed with birds, fish, salamanders and squids. These creations, like the Kirkpatrick brothers` pieces, reflect a love of nature.

An outstanding catalogue, ``The Kirkpatricks` Pottery at Anna, Illinois,`` pictures and fully describes many of the folk pottery pieces on display in the exhibition and will also provide background on the brothers. It is available for $8 at the gallery or $9.50 postpaid from State of Illinois Center at Chicago, c/o Debora Donato, State of Illinois Art Gallery, 100 W. Randolph St., Suite 2-100, Chicago, Ill. 60601; phone 917-5322. After its run in Chicago, the exhibition will be on view from March 21 through May 3 at the Illinois State Museum in Springfield.

Anna Pottery snake jugs are especially desirable. One jug, a circa 1870 painted stoneware piece, is on display in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center in Williamsburg, Va. The jug, made to hold liquor, is designed with sculptured forms of frogs, snakes and other slimy creatures crawling over the surface as well as human heads, hands and feet sticking out from peep holes. The stopper at the top is shaped like a monkey, with one hand on its head and the other on its stomach.

If you wish to find out more about such folk art pottery and other folk art pieces, don`t miss Dr. Robert Bishop`s talk and presentation ``Continuity and Change: The Folk Arts in America`` at 1 p.m. March 2 in the Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka. Tickets are $8 each and include high tea served after the lecture. Reservations should be made immediately by phoning 446-0537. Bishop is the director of the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City. If you wish to subscribe to the museum`s Clarion folk art magazine, which is published three times a year, write the Museum of American Folk Art, 62 W. 50th St., New York, N.Y. 10112. Enclose $35, which includes a museum membership, or send $4 for a sample copy.